With the advent and steady growth of electronic commerce, the physical mail stream will increasingly be utilized for sending and receiving packages and other deliverable articles or items. Accordingly, there continues to be a need for a convenient, reliable, and efficient mechanism for consumers and businesses alike to transport these articles using conventional delivery systems.
In order for an article to travel through the mail delivery system, a consumer must purchase and attach postage to a container for transporting that article. In many instances, this involves a consumer traveling to a postage dispensing facility to procure the appropriate amount of postage, based on factors such as the container's weight, size, destination, and desired delivery time. The postage paid is traditionally indicated on a label or stamp that is attached to the container through the use of an adhesive. In some cases, the consumer applies moisture to the back of the postage, in order to attach the postage to the container. In conventional systems, postage may become dislodged by machinery, by the handling of deliverers, or temperature variations that can affect the adhesive used on the postage label or stamp.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a container that avoids the potential problem of having attached postage become dislodged during the container's travel through a mail delivery system. It is also desirable to provide a container that would allow the user to avoid having to separately travel to a postage dispensing facility to procure the required postage for delivery. In addition, it would be desirable to provide such a container having integrated security features to ensure that counterfeiting or forgery of the container or postage has not occurred.